KMSS: Assam will quit India if Citizenship Bill passed

Activists from the Bhartiya Janata Party shout slogans in support of the publication of the first complete draft of the National Register of Citizens and against what they say is illegal immigration of people from Bangladesh during a rally in Kolkata on August 2, 2018
AFP

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was introduced in the lower house of the Indian parliament by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in July 2016

Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) leader Akhil Gogoi on Sunday said that if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is passed, then the state will be bound to separate itself from India.

KMSS is a peasant organization that was formed in the Indian state of Assam in 2005 by Akhil Gogoi, who is a “right to information” (RTI) activist.

Addressing a protest rally against the proposed legislation in Assam’s Tinsukia district, Gogoi said: “If the government gives us the respect we deserve, we are with the nation. But if the sentiments of the indigenous Assamese are ignored and the bill is passed, then each Assamese must have the courage to say that they will not be a part of India.”

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was introduced in the lower house of the Indian parliament by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in July 2016. The bill aims to provide citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who left Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh to escape religious persecution.

Several organizations in Assam are against the bill as they claim it would nullify the Assam Accord of 1985, which seeks to deport illegal immigrants from the northeastern Indian state.